Suwa watched Takeuchi’s chest rise and fall as he slept next to him. He could see his eyes move underneath his eyelids, dreaming. A level of humanity that still clung to them, even after all these years.

Takeuchi had told him about how a lot of animals could dream, about a recent study about REM-sleep in spiders. It had never crossed his mind to wonder if spiders could dream. But Takeuchi had an endless need for knowledge that bubbled over and left Suwa knowing answers to questions he had never even asked.

He thought about how many years he had spent alone, with no company but the vampires he spent his nights killing, the stench of their blood competing with that of the city. He had been afraid of getting close to people, just as much in the emotional sense as the physical, back then.

Three hundred years spent alone. Three hundred years where he did almost nothing but hunting other vampires. And then he had run into Takeuchi, who so readily asked him to join him in Code Zero. Takeuchi, who had somehow gotten him to say yes to the offer.

He was glad he did.

His days didn’t feel as empty anymore, now that he had people to spend them with. It had taken him a long time to find a place where he could be comfortable. He knew it could easily be ripped away from him again at any moment, the way they had forever lost Yamagami and Maeda in the same breath as the sun had hit them.

So for Takeuchi to have stayed in his life for one hundred years now… it made him feel things he wasn’t sure how to put into words. A mix of swirling emotions in his chest, memories he wanted to etch into his bones, to make sure that he would never forget them, the way he had forgotten his last moments as a human for so many years.

Suwa’s fingers traced the line underneath Takeuchi’s eye, thinking about the stigmata hiding right underneath the thin skin of his eyelid. A moment later, Takeuchi’s eyes opened, and he was faced with the symbol that marked Takeuchi as a vampire.

Takeuchi smiled, running his fingers through Suwa’s hair.

Withdrawing his hand, Suwa leaned forward, pressing his lips to Takeuchi’s eyelid. He could feel all the tiny movements of the thin skin separating his lips from the mark.

When he moved back, Takeuchi’s cheeks were flushed. 

“Good morning, Suwa-san.”

A crooked smile made its way onto Suwa’s lips.

“Good morning.”

This time when he leaned forward, it was to press a kiss to Takeuchi’s lips.

He didn’t know for how many more decades, how many more centuries either of them would live, but even with how long it had taken, he was glad they had finally met.

It had taken him three hundred years to find somewhere to call home. He hadn’t thought that it would come in the shape of another vampire, and though they sometimes parted ways, he knew that Takeuchi would always be happy to welcome him back home.

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